Problem: For circular structures, nodes are radially located about a common center. Moving or copying nodes becomes a problem in that X and Z coordinates have to be computed. Or they have to be located / generated by a circular repeat command.
Suggestion 1: Provide commands to copy / move nodes along radial lines.
Suggestion 2: Provide means to lengthen / shorten a beam, similar to the stretch command.
These two suggestions are related as they offer the means to move elements in a linear direction relative to a common center / location.
At present, the stretch command is limited as it generates another node, as opposed to changing the length of the member and moving the start/end node. Same idea as moving / copying a node along a vectored line.
At present, both of these suggestions can be accomplished by a series of constructions. A single command could simplify this work.
Thanks.
Michael Mills
Carlos:
Thank you for your effort to understand my suggestion.
Michael Mills
Thank you for posting this/these idea(s). I might not fully understand the problem you are trying to solve? If the question is about moving nodes that have been defined on a circular panel and need to be moved radially rather than in a linear direction, then that is provided for with the rotate tool. The axis of rotation must be defined either as two points in 3D space or by two nodes, or a mixture of both. Then the angle of rotation defines how much the node will be moved about this axis. Finally, if a new node is required, use the 'Copy' mode otherwise chose the 'Move' mode. Or are you trying to increase the diameter of a cylinder and thus looking to move the nodes defined on a thinner diameter to the new larger diameter, thus each node is moving in a linear direction but the vector each node follows would be different as that is determined by the origin and the specific node being moved?